Jackie Gibbs, 22, used to be a gang member with a cocaine habit and a hefty juvenile rap sheet. Three years after responding to a YouthWorks flyer she saw posted at a mall, she’s YouthWorks’ operations director and has found her calling helping other young people put their lives on track.

Dana Levin, a former faculty member at College of Santa Fe (now Santa Fe University of Art and Design), is currently the Joseph M Russo endowed chairwoman at University of New Mexico, and is one of the organizers of the Muse Times Two poetry series at Collected Works Bookstore. She will return as acting CWD chairwoman at SFUAD this fall.

For years after finishing my stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador, I listed “killing chickens” in the skills/interests section of my résumé—not because of my enduring hatred for the rooster that awakened me every morning at 2 but, rather, because the Peace Corps experience is singularly unshakable.

Jennifer Muñoz has been with the Santa Fe Police Department for 71/2 years. In November, the lifelong Santa Fean left her position as administrative secretary for detective investigations for a newly created one: SFPD anti-graffiti coordinator.

Phil Pfeiffer, a director, and his wife Cee Moravec, a set dresser, began building a house in Cerrillos powered by alternative energy after Pfeiffer took green building classes through Architects, Designers & Contractors Network in Santa Fe.

In 2010, sculptor and painter David Rudolph was selected for an $84,000 grant from the New Mexico Arts Commission for his proposed installation project, “The Books,” at Santa Fe Community Co

For one hour every Wednesday night at Tomasita’s, the clink of silverware and hum of conversation fade into the background, giving way to the chords of six stringed instruments—three violins, a bass, a guitar and a vihuela, or small Mexican rhythm guitar.

Mark Barone and Marina Dervan are taking a year off from their regular lives for An Act of Dog, a Santa Fe-based art project geared at raising money to make animal shelters no-kill. Barone is in the process of painting 5,500 euthanized dogs—the number of dogs killed in US shelters each day.

Jenn Jevertson is the program manager at New Mexico Gay-Straight Alliance Network, a programcreated by the Santa Fe Mountain Center, a Tesuque nonprofit. The Gay-Straight Alliance Network organizes free events and trainings to help youth develop strength and leadership skills.

Those who frequented the Plaza during summer 2010 might remember Jim McDonald as the juggling man on a large plastic ball. His current project: renovating an old bus in which to travel through Mexico bringing solar energy to rural communities without electricity.